Bukharan Jews and the Dynamics of Global Judaism

Alanna E. Cooper is an anthropologist and cultural historian who has held research and teaching positions at Boston University, University of Massachusetts, University of Michigan, and Harvard University's Center for the Study of World Religions. Her publications have appeared in the Jerusalem Post, the Jewish Review of Books, Anthropology of East Europe Review, Jewish Social Studies, and AJS Review.

This study of the Jewish communities of Central Asia—primarily the cities of Tashkent, Bukhara, and Samarkand, and smaller surrounding settlements—is an impressive synthesis of ethnography and cultural history. It is the product of many years of patient interviews, participant observation, and archival research.(AJS Review) Much interest will be provoked by this book in the transformation of Bukharan Jewish self-identity and especially the varieties of their Jewishness. Within these wide categories, this beautifully presented and well-written monograph adds to our understanding of this community.(Slavic Review) [This] book is an important work that offers readers a insightful perspective of a Jewish group as it is transformed and shaped. . . The book is well written, well argued, and very readable. It will definitely become a must read in curricula dealing not only with Jewish studies but nationalities, Diaspora, and minorities studies as well.(H-Judaic) It is a rare edited volume that keeps readers moving from chapter to chapter like a single-author book, but that is precisely what 'Ethnographies of the State in Central Asia' accomplishes. Including authors from a range of academic fields, it is positioned as a contribution to the interdisciplinary body of literature on ethnographically analysing 'the state', and incorporates rich and engaging case studies from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Xinjiang.(Central Asian Survey) Bukharan Jews and the dynamics of global Judaism makes an original and exciting contribution to the anthropology of Jewish communities and promises to become an important reference-point in social studies of Judaism. Alanna Cooper's engaging study of the Bukharan Jews (or the Jews of Central Asia) takes the reader on a journey throughout the centuries and discusses a wide range of issues in the history and anthropology both of this specific community and of Judaism in general.(Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute) Bukharan Jews and the Dynamics of Global Judaism is an important contribution to Jewish Studies, shining a light on a neglected area of the Jewish world that deserves more attention.(Journal of Folklore Research) By considering a community at the 'periphery' of the Jewish world, Cooper aims to reflect on the wider faith and culture.8/9/13(Times Literary Supplement) [T]his is a readable, illuminating, and in many ways pathbreaking book. . . . Highly recommended.(Choice) Based on a wealth of different kinds of source materials and together with the challenging questions she raises, Cooper produces a broad and interesting picture of a lesser-studied and understood group of Jews, which despite a common name are becoming distinguished units based on location, the length of time they have been living there and outside influences.(AJL Reviews) Bukharan Jews and the Dynamics of Global Judaism is written in an engaging style, not laden with jargon or with so much detail as to lose the inattentive reader. Cooper situates her work within Jewish studies, but she provides enough explanation of her key interests and questions that a reader who knows little about Judaism will still find the work very accessible. Likewise, non-anthropologists will find her explanations of method and theory to be useful and easily understood.(Nationalities Papers) Overall, Bukharan Jews and the Dynamics of Global Judaism contributes to the growing field of Jewish ethnography, especially in its concentration on an understudied Jewish group that reveals the significance of contestation to understanding diaspora communities. Methodologically, Cooper's focus on contestations and conversations and her incorporation of historiographic material in addition to ethnographic work are also valuable. This ethnography will be of particular interest to students and scholars of the anthropology of Jews, Jewish studies more broadly, and diaspora and migration studies.(American Ethnologist) Every serious student of Jewish history should read this book.(Jewish Link)

• Preface: Reining in Diaspora's MarginsAcknowledgmentsPart 1. Introduction1. First Encounter: Bukharan Jewish Immigrants in an Ashkenazi School in New York2. Writing Bukharan Jewish History: Memory, Authority, and PeoplehoodPart 2. Eighteenth-Century Conversations3. An Emissary from the Holy Land in Central Asia4. Revisiting the Story of the Emissary from the Holy LandPart 3. Nineteenth-Century Conversations5. Russian Colonialism and Central Asian Jewish Routes6. A Matter of Meat: Local and Global Religious Leaders in Conversation7. Building a Neighborhood and Constructing Bukharan Jewish IdentityPart 4. Twentieth-Century Conversations8. Local Jewish Forms9. International Jewish Organizations Encounter Local Jewish Community Life10. Varieties of Bukharan Jewishness11. Negotiating Authenticity and Identity: Bukharan Jews Encounter Each Other and the Self12. Jewish History as a ConversationNotesBibliographyIndex